Signs and symptoms of Fever

General characteristics of fever. Chills or shivering; fever pattern (at what time of day the fever appears) and duration (a few hours or several days).

Medical background. Toxic habits (tobacco, alcohol, other recreational drugs), regular medicines, drug allergies, epidemiological background (visits to tropical countries), past illnesses (neoplasms, chemotherapy), patients who wear a urinary or central venous catheter, recent surgical interventions, endoscopic tests and vaccination status.

Generalised pain. Muscle pain (myalgia) is typical of viral diseases and may be accompanied by fever.

Headache. Headache is a common complaint of people with fever; however, if it is very intense and coincides with other symptoms such as a decreased level of consciousness and severe vomiting, then it could be due to a central nervous system infection.

Abdominal pain and gastrointestinal symptoms. When fever is the result of a visceral abdominal process it is usually accompanied by either continuous or fluctuating abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, and may sometimes present with symptoms of yellow discoloration of the skin and mucous membranes (jaundice) and occasionally with changes in bowel movement frequency (diarrhoea or constipation).

Respiratory symptoms. If the fever is caused by an upper respiratory tract process, then it usually presents with a runny nose, nasal congestion, dry cough and/or pain when swallowing (odynophagia). If it is due to a respiratory condition affecting the lower tract (acute bronchitis or pneumonia), then it tends to be accompanied by a productive cough and sometimes pleuritic chest pain (i.e., it worsens with breathing movements).

Urinary symptoms. Fever that presents with symptoms of discomfort while urinating, lower back pain or pelvic pain is generally the result of a urinary infection.

Neurological symptoms. Infections of the central nervous system are typically severe and produce a characteristic set of symptoms in addition to fever: intense headache, decreased level of consciousness, focal neurological deficit and even epileptic seizures. In the most severe cases, these infections are accompanied by small purple lesions which are mainly observed on the lower extremities.

Skin eruptions. Fever sometimes manifests with rash-like skin eruptions (reddish in colour and of varying extension), especially in children who often suffer from contagious viral infections. These infections mainly occur in unvaccinated (or partially vaccinated) patients (whether children or adults).